


Training

by snack_size



Series: Dog Parenting [2]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Chuck Lives AU, Crack, Emotional Support Animals, Flirting, Fluff, Friendship - Newton Geiszler and Hermann Gottlieb, Granddogs, M/M, Puppies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-19
Updated: 2013-09-19
Packaged: 2017-12-27 01:33:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/972755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snack_size/pseuds/snack_size
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The further adventures of Max's four puppies and the humans that they hang out with.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Training

Newt squinted at the data he had collected from the kaiju adrenal gland samples. There was something not quite right there, and whether it was an error on his part or something more-

“What. Is. That?”

Newt glanced up - standard Hermann Gottlieb lab entrance. Newt hadn’t expected him, given that Vanessa had just given birth about a week before.

Newt followed the direction that Hermann’s cane was pointed. “Oh! Gimli!” Gimli emerged from the blanket fort he had made in his bed at the sound of his name.

“Gimli?” Hermann asked. “What is it doing here?”

“Hanging out, mostly,” Newt said, swiveling in his chair. “He kinda caused a fuss when I left him in my room, and I figured, you know, he’s much less of a mess than kaiju remains, so-”

“You have a puppy?” Hermann asked, and wrinkled his face - as though this was the worst thing that Newt had ever conceived of. The guy who had a kid when his numbers told him the apocalypse was upon them.

“Yeah, man, he’s pretty awesome,” Newt said. He got up, walked over, and scooped up Gimli - the puppy was 150% not having Hermann’s objections and just sort of draped, ridiculous and wrinkled, in Newt’s arms. “Lord of the Wrinkles.” Hermann closed his eyes, and then exhaled. “Aw, dude, you’re a cat person, aren’t you?”

“Animals should not be in the workplace. Unless they are service-”

Newt glanced down at Gimli, whose little tail was wagging at Hermann in hopes he would be his friend. “He’s an emotional support animal,” Newt said.

“I will lodge an appropriate complaint-”

“Yeah, dude, not going to do you any good,” Newt said, and pulled Gimli away from Hermann. No point in disappointing the little guy. “Marshall’s granddog and all.”

Hermann narrowed his eyes and then grimaced when he went to walk towards his side of the lab and his cane hit a squeaky toy. He whacked it right into the blanket fort.

“Is he at least well behaved?”

“He’s too young to learn tricks,” Newt said, as Gimli squirmed out of his arms and after his squeaky toy. “He needs to enjoy every possible experience with life, and play, and eventually-”

Hermann wrinkled his nose. “Please tell me you’ve at least commenced training him to eliminate-”

“He goes right there,” Newt said, pointing to a patch of artificial grass in a large tub he had put right under the stationary sinks. Hermann looked appalled. “What is it with that? No one thinks it’s at all bad that cats shit in your house, but you train a dog to go inside and it’s the most disgusting thing ever!”

“Newt!” Tendo said, opening the door to the lab with Girl Dog in his arms - _damn hipster_ , Newt thought, though really, it had happened by default because Tendo had been so indecisive about naming. “Ready for our play date?”

“Oh no,” said Hermann. “No, no, no.”

“Outvoted, four to one,” Newt said, as Girl Dog climbed into Gimli’s blanket fort and stole his squeaky. “Hey!”

“The dogs do not count.”

Newt reached down and covered Gimli’s ears. “Don’t you listen to him, he is a mean man.”

“Isn’t fatherhood supposed to soften you?” Tendo asked. Hermann scowled.

* * *

“Even the mighty Siberian tiger is no match for Gimli!” Newt said, wiggling the small stuffed animal in front of Gimli. “Despite lack of body armor, he still uses his fearsome paws to-”

“I don’t think the mighty Siberian tiger squeaks,” Hermann called from where he was organizing files.

“Shouldn’t you be playing with your kid, or something?” Newt asked.

“Vanessa and her mother thought it might be best for me to attend to some of the work I need to submit-”

Oh, Newt thought, and then he felt bad for being terse with Hermann.

There was only one way to handle this. He tossed the mighty Siberian Tiger at Hermann so it hit the back of the chair he was seated in.

Gimli bounded over, picked up the tiger, and squeaked it at Hermann. “Your dog requires assistance, Dr. Geiszler.” Gimli squeaked the tiger again. It occurred to Newt that he should get him a stuffed orc or something.

“Nope, sorry Hermann, can’t get him, I appear to be afflicted with some sort of mysterious paralytic-”

Hermann gave Newt that look, and Newt grinned back at him. Then Hermann sighed - by now, he knew the probabilities, knew who was going to be able to hold out the longest. Hermann picked up the tiger. Gimli jumped on his good leg. Hermann looked at the dog, looked at Newt, and then gingerly picked him up.

Newt smiled at him as Hermann carefully pet Gimli on the head. “He is quite wrinkly,” Hermann said.

“Yeah,” Newt replied. “So. Babies are kind of...random, huh?” he asked. “Unpredictable.”

Hermann sighed and stroked Gimli’s entire body, his hand fitting over most of the puppy. “I do not understand what she...wants.”

“Eat, shit, sleep?” Newt asked. Hermann considered the puppy, and Newt got up and moved over next to Hermann. He sat down on the floor next to him.

“I had assumed it would be so simple,” said Hermann. “Three possibilities, but it would seem that…” Gimli yawned, and Hermann looked like his heart was going to break.

“Dude,” said Newt. “You’re going to be a great dad. You might not be best with infants, but that’s cool. Just wait until you can blow stuff up with Johanna. Or get her her first abacus.”

Hermann considered this and his face relaxed slightly. He pulled at Gimli’s wrinkles, and Gimli licked the hand that Hermann accidentally put in front of the dog’s mouth. Hermann pretended this incursion hadn’t happened, or that he wasn’t happy about it.

“See,” Newt said. “Emotional support animal.”

* * *

Chuck walked Max while Raleigh sort of dragged Harley along with them. “Wait,” Chuck said.

“Oh, gosh, sorry, I didn’t see-” said the woman that Tendo had just bumped into. Chuck didn’t know who she was, so he assumed she was another new researcher. Her accent suggested she was American. “Oh. My. Gosh.”

She bent down and peered at Girl Dog with a look that Chuck could only think of as broody.

“Is he yours?”

“She is,” Tendo said, bending down as well. “She’s really friendly, so…” The woman pet Girl Dog and smiled. Then she smiled at Tendo.

“I’m Claire, by the way - and I should have known, with the pink collar - so, she’s yours? What’s her name?”

“Girl Dog,” Tendo said, with that sly grin of his. “Just sort of found her, and-”

“Oi!” Chuck called, because he hated when Herc was right about things. “You put in an application for her, you twat! And now you’re whoring her out-”

“Not really whoring,” Raleigh said. “More like using her as bait.”

“You have one too? Oh my gosh, is that the daddy?” Claire asked, and Tendo scowled at the two of them.

“Well, she’s sort of both of ours,” Raleigh said, as Claire pet Max with one hand and Harley with the other.

For whatever reason, the fact that they were a couple of men who were a couple with a puppy seemed to ratchet up the sheer amount of cute, and Claire looked like she might burst.

Chuck grinned at Tendo. _Just wait_ , Tendo mouthed back at him.

* * *

“Thought we should have a playdate with all the sprogs,” Herc said, one evening, as they sat with Mako and had dinner. Mako had Max in her lap and was attempting to teach him to give his paw for scraps, but Max was having none of it. A lifetime of getting scraps without any effort was hard to overcome. He was appealing to Chuck and Raleigh with a really sad face.

“Miss the granddogs, eh?” Chuck asked.

Herc narrowed his eyes at him. “I think it would be good,” Raleigh said, smile growing across his face. Probably as he imagined himself covered in puppies again. Chuck sighed.

“Show Tendo how to properly behave with his dog?” Chuck asked.

“Newt taught Gimli to attack,” Raleigh said. “He found this little stuffed dragon, and, OK, might be mixing books a little bit-”

“Christ,” said Chuck, and appealed to Herc with wide eyes, but he just shook his head.  _You made your bed,_ the look said,  _you lie in it._

* * *

Mark’s two kids, Mia and Ava, seemed nervous as they stood, each holding the leash for their puppy while the other three sort of bumped into each other and yapped happily as Max looked on.

Raleigh looked over at Chuck - this better not be a test, Chuck thought. Two weeks with a puppy had made it pretty clear Raleigh wanted an armful of kids in oversized knit sweaters, possibly with their initials knit on front.

Herc nodded at Chuck, confirming his suspicion. So Chuck gingerly approached the two girls and their puppy.

“So, what’s this little guy’s name?” Chuck asked the two girls while the other puppies started to sniff each other’s butts.

“Chuck,” said Ava.

“Chuck,” Chuck said. Mia nodded and beamed at him.

Chuck glanced back and saw Raleigh with his lips pressed together, doing his best not to laugh. Herc had bent to hide amongst the puppies, but Chuck could hear him.

“Wanted to name him after one of the Jaeger pilots that saved the world,” Mark said, and he grinned at Chuck.

“You, uh, like Chuck the best?” Chuck asked.

“Not really,” said Ava. Raleigh snorted at this, then looked apologetic. Chuck narrowed his eyes. He better be. “But we couldn’t name him Mako ‘cause she’s a girl and Chuck is a boy.”

“Mako is the best!” said Mia. Raleigh grinned.

“And Raleigh is a really stupid name,” said Ava.

Chuck smirked at Raleigh. “Yeah, it is,” he said. Raleigh gave him that slightly feral grin he had. _Good_ , Chuck thought.

* * *

Chuck was surprised to see Hermann arrive with a baby strapped to his chest. But then again, stranger things. “Oh, aren’t they lovely!” said Vanessa, and she sat down next to Raleigh. Chuck instantly crawled into her lap and licked her hand. “What’s this little one’s name?”

“Chuck,” Raleigh said. Hermann made a slight choking sound, then grinned.

“Babies aren’t the same as puppies,” Mia said to Hermann.

“No,” said Newt, who had rolled his sleeves up when he demonstrated Gimli’s attack technique - proving he was Max’s offspring, he just sort of bat his paw at the stuffed dragon. “But Hermann is Gimli’s, uh, uncle, so I invited him.”

“Oh,” said Mia. “Like Herc is their grandpa?”

“Exactly,” Chuck said.

* * *

Chuck kissed down Raleigh’s neck, keeping his mouth gentle - mostly because it made Raleigh squirm beneath him. “Goddamnit!” Raleigh said, as Chuck carefully sucked down his collar bone. “Maybe I’ll trade you for the other Chuck-”

“Don’t think he’d be quite up for the same things, mate,” Chuck murmured, then went back to the spot on Raleigh’s neck that made him shiver.

Raleigh inhaled and sighed. He relaxed slightly, too, and put his hands in Chuck’s hair. “That’s good, that’s better,” he said. “Love the way you lick me there-”

“Not licking anything,” Chuck said, and looked up.

Raleigh startled, knocking Harley off of his chest. Chuck stared, for a moment, realized what had happened, and then almost fell over laughing as Raleigh reddened.

“Told you those stairs were a bad idea!” he said. Raleigh had accused him of being cruel by not providing Max and Harley with a way of getting onto the bed when they wanted to. Chuck had argued there were advantages to being the one to decide when the dogs were in the bed with you. “Aw, did you want to kiss Raleigh too?” he asked Harley, picking her up and smushing her face. “Wanted to kiss his nipple?”

“This isn’t funny,” Raleigh said. He glanced down at his rapidly deflating cock.

“C’mon, Harles,” Chuck said - he still had most of his clothes on, at least. “Let’s go find grandpa.” He turned and grinned at Raleigh as he shoved the stairs away from the bed. “I’ll take care of it, Raleigh, don’t worry,” he said, and grinned at his dick. Raleigh sighed.

“Little cock block,” he said to Harley, when he closed the door to their room and walked across the hall. He could swear the puppy was grinning at him.


End file.
